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Azeroth Adventure Journal - [ 01 ]
🕑 Added 2023-10-16 09:36:28 +0000 UTCThe rhythmic sound of dripping water echoing annoyingly in the room roused my groggy mind into wakefulness. I groaned at being awoken, who left the damned tap open and why do I hear it from my bed?
I turned around, thinking that with me facing away from the sound I could maybe fall back into the comfortable embrace of sleep.
That was a mistake, with my first movement I felt pain wrack my body. I squealed, an unfamiliar high-pitched sound that I somehow couldn't recognize as my own but I was far too occupied with my whole right side hurting like a bitch. My eyes cracked open and were met with darkness, I could barely make out the walls of the room but even as I was I could tell something was very damned wrong.
My fingers slid across the damp stone as I held my torso up, a shiver ran through my body as I felt my bare legs and hip still connect with the cold floor. Why was I sleeping on the damned floor in what seemed like a damp cellar? Confusion, pain, annoyance and fear wrestled with each other in my mind and unsurprisingly fear won out, dread to be exact. I didn't remember coming here, I didn't remember where I was, why I was here.
Who?What?Why?Where?
I started shivering, trembling as much from the dread as from the occasional chilly breeze running across my naked skin.
Why am I naked in a dark cellar? I need to get out.
I stumbled to my feet, then promptly collapsed and scraped my knee and wrists as I barely managed to keep my face from smashing into the floor. I was now as confused as I was scared, my legs didn't work as they should, I don't know how they should work but it's certainly not how they do. I had the faintest feeling that they were too short, too thin and somehow my weight felt all wrong.
I can't even walk properly, what is going on?
The dread returned as I scrambled to one of the walls on hands and knees like some animal, scraping my poor skin further as I did. Once I reached the wall I used it as a handle, haphazardly placed bricks peaked out from the wall all over the place which was rather lucky for me as I still couldn't see for shit so I just randomly grabbed onto whatever I found.
I tried standing again, my legs trembled at first but I latched onto the wall like a lamprey with my fingers probably going white from how hard I clutched my handholds. Still, I was now standing, I didn't dare try to step yet as my heart was beating in my throat and for a moment I was scared that I might spit it out if I continued without taking a few seconds to calm down a bit.
Deep breaths. In and out. I repeated in my mind, my nostrils flared and the damp and stale air rushed into my lungs. I coughed as dust followed, I almost lost my footing as I started a rather intense coughing fit. Okay, no deep breaths, fuck, slow and steady, small breaths.
I didn't know how long it took but after what felt like an eternity I only felt each breath tickle the inside of my throat, I still had the urge to cough but I held it down, this was not the time for that. Right, I was trying to stand, now what?
I glanced around, some distant source of light was giving the barest hint of illumination to the room, flickering and unstable as it was. I should not have glanced around, my eyes were fixated on the beams of darkness clearly visible as they made up one wall of this 'room' I was in. The flickering light sneaked in between them and I had a pit form in my stomach as my heart nearly stopped.
"Those are bars," I whispered, my eyes going wide as my soft voice trickled into my ears. It was soft, childish, high pitched and more importantly it sounded frail and weak.
My wide-open eyes once again acted before my mind could stop them and glanced down at my body, illuminated by those elusive flickers of light. I had a sense of intense 'wrongness' as I did, I was lithe and petite if I was being generous or even malnourished if I was not, still it was obviously the body of a child even if it seemed to be right on the cusp of turning into a girl. Girl, I have the body of a girl.
Stared, my mind not quite understanding why I felt as stumped by that discovery as I was. I frowned, I am a girl, if barely, I am a child. Is there something wrong with that?
All that met my confused question was silence and the annoying echo of dripping water. Girl or not, I was in a fucking cell, that was far more concerning, almost as much as the fact that I had no idea why I was here or who I was.
Elyndra!
I blinked, I was Elyndra, that was my name. I somehow knew it to be as certain as the sky was blue and the grass was green, it was as much a fact of life as Orcs being green and Arcane being the epitome of magic. What?
I leaned my back against the wall, cold and wet as it was I needed more stability and I didn't want to sit. I shivered as the cold stone touched my back but I still held onto two protruding bricks with my small fingers.
What was that about Orcs and Magic?
Information flooded my chaotic mind, instantly I understood both things. Far from the level of an expert but closer to one whose hobby was knowing surface information about both subjects. Orcs, invaders that came through the Dark Portal, corrupted by the blood of Manoroth the pit fiend. I knew what anyone who knew the lore of Azeroth would, Azeroth, yes, that should be the name of the world I was on.
Then came Magic, Mana, the lifeblood of the universe, Light, Shadow, Nature, Necromancy, Arcane and Fel. I blinked as the new information settled firmly into my mind, contrasting heavily with my dozen wayward thoughts as they flailed to make even a smidge of sense of my situation. I gulped, the information was nice but the feeling of going from knowing nothing to having information implanted into my mind was rather sudden and I was left even more confused than I was before. My thoughts swirled and I made a question, hoping, praying that whatever imparted the previous knowledge onto me would pity me enough to give me an answer.
Why am I here?
This information was different, less dry knowledge being engraved into my memory and more like I was reliving the fragments of a memory. Maybe it was my own, maybe it was from the being that gave me the knowledge and maybe it was neither and I was just too ignorant to make an accurate guess. I remembered a survey, not that's not the word, 'character creation' may be more accurate.
I remember some choices, some remain foggy and some I feel were ripped out of the memory. Still, I got the gist of it, the character being created was named 'Elyndra' as well which is either an astronomical coincidence or I am that character. Fear gripped my heart at the realization, am I some toy for a god somewhere? A little puppet or maybe a toy they made on a whim and threw into this world to see them flail around for their entertainment?
I bit my lips and felt the coppery taste of blood spread around my mouth as my eyes teared up. I stared at the dark bars standing firmly between me and the flickering light far away, 'who made those choices? ' the question spun around my head followed by a trail of indignation. I remembered a choice that said I'd be a prisoner, not much better than a slave, Just why, I don't care if that choice gave you enough points to give me some stupid eye trait, I don't want to be a slave.
Tears trickled down from my eyes as I sobbed quietly, the darkness and the cold being my only company.
I raised one of my hands to wipe the tears off but stiffened as I felt something rugged on my finger touch my cheek. I stared at it in the darkness and ran a finger over it tenderly, feeling something tough and metallic wrapping around one of my fingers. A ring, right, I remember that from the survey, a 'Ring of Regeneration' right?
I got no answers aside from the image of what such a ring should look like and what it did flashing in the forefront of my mind. Very slow healing, nothing lethal but it should do for anything less and it shouldn't even leave scars if the wound isn't too deep and it should dampen any pain I feel. Curiously I touched my scraped knees, I hissed, it was very much not healed but now that I paid attention to it I felt a slight tingle in all the places I injured.
I felt conflicted, for one, I had a magical healing ring, for another, this thing cost me three points in the survey. If I didn't have this maybe I could have woken up in a forest or something and not in a cold cell.
I shook my head, no matter what I felt I had a ring and I was a tiny little elf girl in a dark damp cell with no clothes on me. 'Elf', I ran the word through my mind, once again having information engraved into my mind and damn was it a lot of information, I even got some stuff about Trolls as Elves were just Trolls that got super evolved by being juiced up on the dense mana of the Well of Eternity.
Interesting stuff which I'd have liked to dig into were it not for the fact that I was shivering in a cell, focus.
Think, what can I do? Maybe I could slip through between those bars, I'm very thin so maybe.
As I was thinking another thing flashed in my mind, an ability I could instinctually use. I glanced down at the dark outline of the ring on my finger and focused.
I felt the ring grow hot for a moment before it seemed to have veins of dark and light blue energy swirling around inside it and just as I was wondering how I was seeing what I assumed was mana those veins poked out of the ring and latched onto me. I yelped but stifled my startled scream, I didn't want to alert any guards if there were any. Blue veins of mana extended out from where I had the ring on my finger and started crawling around under my skin, I watched in awed fascination as along with the rapidly expanding veins I felt the cold subside and a comfortable warmness spread around my body.
I closed my eyes and almost moaned in comfort, it was like the combination of sitting next to a hearth on a cold winter night and submerging yourself into a hot bath. The feeling departed as quickly as it came, leaving me shivering as the cold air seeped into me and chilled me to my bones.
A weak smile crept onto my face as I felt like the ring was an inseparable part of myself, I had just sanctioned it which meant nobody could take it away from me, even if they cut my arm off the ring would always return to me and reject others. I shook my head, my gaze flickering around as I searched for what might be even more important for my continued survival than the ring.
I quickly found it, a small rock maybe half as large as my closed fist near the middle of the room where I woke up. It shone clearly in my eye with the same shimmering blue energy as the veins did before. I let go of the wall, my arms spread to both sides of me like standing was a complicated acrobatic maneuver I needed all the stability I could get for.
I breathed in and out, counting in my head as I fixed my breathing pattern into a stable rhythm. When I reached the count of six in my head I breathed out and took a step, I broke my breathing and hissed in a mouthful of air as I nearly fell but my feet touched the cold stone before I could. I stood there probably looking like an idiot, with my arms spread and mid-step but a grin spread on my lips. I can do this.
Left leg, right leg, left leg, right leg, left leg...OH!
I nearly kicked the glowing stone away as I focused on walking with all my flimsy mental power. Arms still spread I carefully bent my knees, I squatted down and stabilized myself with my palms on the floor before picking up the glowing piece of stone. I held it tightly in my right hand as my thumb ran over the simple rune carved into the face of it, a Rune of Mana. I felt the mystical energy gathering into the simple piece of rock and I felt goosebumps rush through my skin.
Mana Addiction! Joy.
I held it to my chest, hugging it like a precious treasure as I thought about how dumb I was to use that sanction on the ring, from what I remember of the survey I should have two sanction slots but there is a 24-hour cooldown on the action of sanctioning an item so if anyone took this life-sustaining piece of rock from me in that time I might go crazy from mana withdrawal. I wasn't even sure if the little rock would be enough to sustain me, most of my kin needed the Sunwell to live normally and I only had a tiny rock.
Let's hope it can stave off the worst of it until I can escape from here.
I didn't know much of my actual situation aside from being a captured High Elven child, I didn't even know if they knew I was here at the moment. Fuck I don't even know who 'they' are.
I rose to my feet on unstable legs and slowly, ever so slowly walked into one of the dark corners of the cell and sat down. I hugged my knees to my body with my little rock squeezed between my thighs and my stomach as mana lazily drifted out of it and into my body. It was like a stream of warmness spreading around my small body and I sighed in contentment every time it came.
I eyed the bars and the flickering light of what was probably a torch far down the hallway. I imagined a form walking in, shadows spreading in the light of the torch every moment but it didn't happen and I felt my eyelids grow heavier by the second. Huddled into the corner as I was, I fell asleep with my forehead slumping onto my knees.
*drip**drip**drip**drip**drip*
A groan left my lips, the cutesy high pitch of it still feeling wrong to my ears but I disregarded it. I blinked as I gathered my wits, I felt the warmness of the mana stone in my hold and with a start, I tried to sanction it. I need to wait 16 more hours.
Fuck.
I was swearing an awful lot in my head, it wasn't as noble or graceful as I should be as an elf. Memories drifted along the edge of my reach, whispering to me that I needed to be better, elegant, and ladylike. I disregarded them, ladies weren't locked in a cell.
As much as I wanted to stay here and pray to whatever shitty god answered so that nobody would find me down here I was feeling twitchy. The light beckoned me and I kept imagining squeezing myself through the bars and escaping whoever owned this place. I even dreamed of running away and just as I would have been caught a mysterious mage saved me and struck down my brutish captors. The dream ended with that mage turning out to be Medivh and he sacrificed me to the Dark portal but let's not dwell on that.
My back slid against the slick wall as I pushed myself up, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and then I took a step. Yesterday's practice must have done wonders as I could walk now, I managed to get ten steps in before my first stumble, stupid small legs.
I stumbled a few times but I managed to reach the bars, my right hand wrapped around the unbending iron as my right still hugged the stone to my chest for what little warmth I could get from it. I tilted my head left and right, eyeing the distance between two bars then glanced down at myself. If I had to guess I'd say I'm somewhere between ten to twelve years old as while my body was mostly that of a child I could see some curves gracing it too, my hips were wider than they should be for sure, small bumps of fat were on my chest and with a glance I noted that even my butt was curvy and sticking out. I felt weird doing the whole inspection but it was a must.
I angled myself sideways and bit my lips, just going from the looks I should be able to squeeze myself through but the image of myself stuck between two bars and at the mercy of the guards who I never saw was enough to make me think twice about it. I really didn't want to get stuck, I even liked it inside this cell, the bar was a nice separator between me and the outside world and dare I say I felt safer in here than at the idea of being out there.
I bit my cheeks and frowned at the bars.
"Stupid cell," I whispered in annoyance.
A gruff laugh echoing through the darkness had me frozen stiff and with my heart threatening to jump out of my chest. My eyes were wide open and I didn't dare move a muscle.
"'Stupid cell'," the voice mocked, its deep voice failing to mimic my high-pitched tone, "I have more colorful words to describe it but I guess those aren't for the ears of a kid."
"Eh?" I made a dumb sound, I thought this was a guard stalking the dark hallway and was laughing at my pitiful form but maybe not?
"How'd they get you brat?" the voice asked, still deep and rough as it reverberated in my bones.
"I- Uhm, d-don't k-now?" I managed to stutter out which made blood rush to my cheeks in embarrassment, still that damned voice, just by the sound of it he could snap my tiny self in half.
"Really?" the voice carried a dark undertone, "How long have you been here?"
"I d-don't know, sir." I gulped, I really didn't, maybe I just had my body created by that 'character creator' or maybe it had some 'backstory' which would mean that I was just amnesiac.
"Sir," the voice guffawed before he audibly winced, "Ah, fuck, hell kid, don't make me laugh, I'm trying to heal my ribs here."
"Sorryyy," I squealed embarrassingly as I quickly sat down and buried my face in my knees.
"Ah, hey, no worries," he wheezed, trying to sound gentle while utterly failing, "It's alright, say, what's your name?"
"Elyndra," I said with a sniff. All previous ideas of escaping were banished from my mind if this scary voice was beyond those bars.
"That's a cute name..." he said," I think" The second part came in a murmur but I still caught it, it even managed to make me smile a bit.
"I like it," I said as I stared at the glowing stone I was essentially wrapped around.
"Well," he said, sounding user of what to say, "I'm Thrall, glad to meet you Elyndra."
I blinked dumbly.
"Y-Yeah," I managed as information flooded my mind as soon as he said the name.
Ohhh myyy gooooooood, whyyyyyyyyyy????!!!!
Comments
P3t1
I do have a proper backstory worked out in my head but it does need the mc to have amnesia at the start. I understand it feeling weird atm so your comment is perfectly valid.
Overclocked
Interesting start but it suffers from a lack of proper origin like most isekai. Your warhammer story has a cool explanation for the transfer of a soul to a lower dimension, but this knew makes no sense with the types of gods we know of. And why the gender bender? Seems like a gimmick.
